The internet is considered to be a place of instant gratification where people try to have the fastest connection, instant downloads, and where people reputedly make a pile of money without even trying. However, the reality of the internet is that while many things can be done quickly, having a successful business isn't one of them. One of the keys to having success is having the patience to do all of the little, detail oriented things that must be done in order to get the maximum visibility and thus get the traffic you need.
Blog Writing and Pinging
Blog writing and pinging your blogs are two things that individually don't take too long, but it's something that has to be done. Writing a blog is a very common practice for business owners, but it has to be done with care in order to be picked up by the search engines. You not only have to write the blog, but you also have to optimize it for search engines (many blog sites have a form to fill out that does this for you), do the keywords, do any backlinks to things like affiliates or your own sites, and when the blog is all done and published, you then have to ping it. Pinging is a generally free service online; when you ping your blog, you notify blog directories and services that you've posted something new. This directs search engines to you in hours instead of days, so it's definitely worth doing.
Update the Social Networks
Again, updating the social networks shouldn't take long, but it is one more chore to do. Update your fan page with whatever's been happening, do a tweet on Twitter and do all of the other little updates on any other social media sites you frequent. Make sure that everyone who's following you knows the latest; not only will this let everyone know when you've done something new, but search engines have also been known to track things like Tweets, so it's a good way to get higher in the rankings.
Answer Your Emails
As your business picks up, you'll get e-mail from customers asking questions, modifying orders, or just wanting to drop a line. Make sure to answer them, even with a standard one-liner. Answering email makes the customer feel important and gives you a better idea of what people are thinking. This can take a while, but it's worth it for the information you can glean from it.
Chat it up at the Forums
Drop a few lines at any forums you're a part of. At first, you should try to just keep up with one forum, but as you get more efficient at doing everything else, join more forums. Remember that the majority of people on forums are friendly, curious, and kind, so don't be shy. And every time you post, you give out free advertising and can make some great online friends.
These may seem like small chores, but they are very important and should be incorporated into a daily ritual for your online business. When you do that, you'll see your traffic rising and the profits start coming in.
